For all those naysayers flooding getreading
moaning about Reading’s bid for city status – ya boo sucks to you, nit-pickers.

For all those naysayers flooding getreading
moaning about Reading’s bid for city status – ya boo sucks to you, nit-pickers.

I imagine them sat at their computers in darkened rooms like grizzled little hobbits.

Just listen to the kind of things they say:

- ‘No ambitions or aspirations, Reading can continue to be a town and a relative backwater’ – I think Reading has lots of aspirations and is certainly no backwater.
- ‘That picture and today’s headlines say it all, Reading is nothing but a scummy town’ – The picture was the train station, set for an £848 million revamp. As for the headline, take a look at the other cities’ websites and you’ll see much the same.
- ‘Before Reading becomes a city it needs to tidy up and look like a city!’ – Yes, agreed, it does need to tidy up. But after the local elections who knows who’ll be in charge to see to that. Plus I’ve seen worse.
- ‘HAHAHAHA... what a joke... city my ar*e!’ – How this person knows anything about Reading I don’t know, as I presume he spends his days slumped on the sofa, watching TV and being sarcastic.

I’m grateful for James London Irish Eastie Beastie, of Whitley, who posted: “Reading is a great ‘little city’. We have an abundance of water activities, night life, basketball, football, hockey, rugby and football teams, a great university, and a good shopping area.”

And Highstakes sums it up entirely: “The small mindedness of people in Reading beggars belief.”

Of course, it’s got lots of faults and it’s not the prettiest of places, but Reading deserves to be a city.

If those moaners think our rivals – Milton Keynes, Medway, Perth and Ballymena – deserve it more than us then please, do tell us why.

I spent many years in St Andrews in Scotland growing up. It’s a gorgeous univeristy town but when you live there it’s village life personified.

I then brought up my family in Farnham, Surrey – a typical market town, which, (pardon my language) is right up itself.

So Reading is now my adopted home town and it’s definitely got the best character and spirit.

So, to you cynics, the answer is clear – get out more, however much it hurts your little eyes!